Graffiti Kingdom

If you leave your pre-conceived notions at the door, Graffiti Kingdom will most definitely entertain you.

Graffiti Kingdom seems, like its predecessor, to be destined for cult status and niche appreciation.

For me, the simple combat takes a backseat to turning everything I love into a videogame character. [June 2005, p.95]

It sure would have been nice to see deeper, more challenging gameplay included to further enjoy your wacky brainchildren in, however in the end you’ll be sinking so many hours into exploring the vast capabilities of the drawing tool that the affordable $30 price will pay for itself tenfold via the hours, days, weeks and months of pure creative entertainment there is to be had.

It's a highly specialized title, with a unique feature that will either delight you or drive you crazy. But those who get into the nitty-gritty of designing custom monsters to play will find in this game rare pleasures and rewards.

But this is more of a tool than it is a game, something that will allow you to create interesting characters and take them on a fairly boring adventure.

It’s not as deep as RPGs like Xenosaga or Fable, and its colorful, animated theme may turn some gamers off. Still, it’s unique and a lot of fun, and with a very affordable price, it’s a game that no artistic RPG fan should miss out on.

In every sense of the word, Graffiti Kingdom is a flat-out fun game. It’s not amazing, and it’s not even great, but it’s well worth the price of admission if not just to try something new.

A slow starter, especially when enemies run away from your character like there's no tomorrow. Once you acquire charge attacks, the game gets a lot more fun.

Those who enjoy this will find hours of play experimenting with new and unique designs in versus and boss battle modes, but the casual gamer will likely find it too involved, too narrow, and just too weird to give it a shot.

Unique, crazy deep and charming, and the head-to-head mode can keep you going for a very long time. [May 2005, p.73]

Not the first video game to allow players to draw their own characters, but certainly one of the best.

The action in Graffiti Kingdom is brief and shallow, but creating and animating your own crazy creatures is easy and rewarding enough to make up for it.

Unfortunately the brilliance of its creative design just isn’t enough to keep gamers interested in to plot but for those willing to overlook a poorly executed RPG, this game is a unique experience worth the look.

Graffiti Kingdom is definitely worth buying if you love art or just building things, but if you're just looking for a solid action adventure title you should spend your money elsewhere.

Had they found a way to make the combat in the game more enjoyable this could have really been a force to be reckoned with.

As a way to make some characters that are sick and twisted or beautifully detailed, the character creation system in Graffiti Kingdom is an amazing tool. But that just makes it all the more heartbreaking when the rest of the game is such a simple and at times frustrating experience.

I can only really recommend this to gamers who have the creative bug in them and want to put their ideas to work. The drawing tool is great, and it is very cool to see your ideas come to life.

An innovative concept wedged into a mediocre game.

It’s a great idea which sounds like a lot of fun, but falls short when it comes to fruition. I'd love to see Hot-B and Taito try this again, while paying closer attention to gameplay, controls, and streamlining the create-a-character in such a way that makes it much more accessible.

RPG fans and fans of titles such as "Monster Rancher" and "Magic Pengel" will probably adore it.

Awful controls and braindead combat. [Sept 2005, p.102]

It's sublimely complex and bursting with potential on one hand, unbelievably limited and shortsighted on the other.

It’s unfortunate that the design aspect is so much more entertaining than the game itself but that’s not to discredit the actual adventure – it’s still a perfectly enjoyable action RPG title that just suffers from being a little simple. [Nov 2005, p.120]

As with similar games, the concept is good, but the execution needs to be more compelling. [June 2005, p.56]